Nevertheless, Baker owns a legacy that started in the Graham Bond Organisation and continued through Cream and Blind Faith as well as his own projects such as Ginger Baker’s Air Force and the Baker Gurvitz Army. The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer — subject of the 2012 documentary “Beware of Mr. Baker” — also has a lengthy array of jazz credits and was one of rock’s early World Music advocates, even working (and living) in Nigeria with Fela Kuti.

These days he has a new quartet, Jazz Confusion, which releases “Why?” his first studio album in 16 years, on June 24. Baker is also trying to crowd-fund a new retrospective album that will “put a lot of different things I’ve recorded over the years on one album.”

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“It’s nothing new,” Baker — who’s battling arthritis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) — says about the saxophone-led Jazz Confusion. “I mean, Ornette Coleman was doing it, with just bass and drums, 20-odd years ago, even longer. We all play by listening to each other. There’s no great secret to it.”